A traveller's reflection: Caucasus 2018: 14 Baku/Gobustan, Azerbaijan

My Travel Journal

"There isn't much I haven't shared with you along the road and through it all there'd always be tomorrow's episode" - Elton John

I started traveling around the world since early 80s when I had the opportunity to combine business trips with vacations. Then later when my rezeki is in abundance, there were numerous other trips along the way for vacations, most of the time with hubby and the kids when the timing is right. I have also started to compile the journal and photo-pages covering almost more than 45 years of world wide travel. Some destinations I visited just once, others many times. Many of those places are the obvious famous places people would like to visit but some, the casual traveler doesn't even think to try. I have placed links to my travel at the side bar of my personal page, My Life Reflections, and will be updating them from time to time.

My wish is to continue my travel and complete circumnavigate the globe, insyaAllah…

Monday, 30 April 2018

Caucasus 2018: 14 Baku/Gobustan, Azerbaijan

"When life steers you in a new direction, just hold on tight and enjoy the ride..."

(Mud Volcano in Gobustan)

Day 14: 28 April 2018 (Saturday)
Route: Baku/ Mud Volcano/ Gobustan National Park
Hotel: Atlas Hotel Baku, Azerbaijan

This morning we travelled to Gobustan State Reserve and the Mud Volcanoes.

Gobustan State Reserve is located west of the settlement of Gobustan, about 40 miles southwest of Baku. It was established in 1966 when the region was declared as a national historical landmark of Azerbaijan in an attempt to preserve the ancient carvings, mud volcanoes and gas-stones in the region.

(Gobustan State Reserve)

(Gobustan National Historical-Artistic Reserve museum)

(The modern Gobustan Museum Complex)

Gobustan State Reserve is very rich in archaeological monuments, the reserve has more than 600,000 rock paintings, which depict primitive men, animals, battle-pieces, ritual dances, bullfights, boats with armed oarsmen, warriors with lances in their hands, camel caravans, pictures of sun and stars, on the average dating back to 5,000 - 20,000 years.

(The main hall of the museum)

(Visitors are introduced to the museum)

(Several original ancient rock arts)

(Exploring some of the main events in the history of Gobustan)

(Exhibition of specific petroglyphs)

(Ancient writings on the walls and ceiling of the hall)

(Drawings of Gobustan petroglyph)

(The everyday life of the Stone Age people)

(Prehistoric arts of Gobustan)

(The famous Gobustan Rock Art)

(Original artefacts and artistic representation)

We visited the museum then later went for a leisure walk to Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape covers three areas of a plateau of rocky boulders rising out of the semi-desert. There are an outstanding collection of more than 6,000 rock engravings bearing testimony to 40,000 years of rock art. The site also features the remains of inhabited caves, settlements and burials, all reflecting an intensive human use by the inhabitants of the area during the wet period that followed the last Ice Age, from the Upper Paleolithic to the Middle Ages.

(a plateau of rocky boulders rising out of the semi-desert)

(Entrance to the Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape Reserve)

(The remains of inhabited caves, settlements and burials)

(A collection of more than 6,000 rock engravings)

(Visiting the preserved ancient carvings)

(A rock art images of hunting activities)

(A musical flat rock)

(Exploring deep ravines and caves)

(A viewing point of ancient rock arts)

(A hole in a rock jutting out of the ground)

(A view of the Caspian Sea from the rock plateau)

From the Gobustan State Reserve we hired four old Lada cars to bring us across the desert to the mud volcanoes. The drivers were driving like crazy on the bumpy mud road avoiding holes and bumps trying to outdo each other.

(A race across the desert)

(Bumpy ride in an old Lada car)

There are over a thousand mud volcanoes known to exist in the world, and some 400 of those are in the coastal area of Azerbaijan. While mud volcanoes also known as sedimentary volcanoes never grow to the size of a normal volcano, topping out at around 10 km in diameter and 700 meters in height. Mud volcanoes are closely associated with hydrocarbon and petrochemical stores underground, hence the gas trying to escape to the surface. A few of these gas leaks are constantly on fire, shooting small perpetual flames into the air and some believe that these perpetual flames are strongly connected to the appearance of the Zoroastrian religion in Azerbaijan some 2,000 years ago. Among the largest mud volcanoes in the world are Boyuk Khanizadagh and Turaghai, both in Azerbaijan.

(Our powerful rented Lada cars)

(A formation of mud volcanoes)

(The size of a mini mud crater)

(One of the sedimentary volcanoes)

(A dessert full of mud volcanoes)

(A photo with our Formula One driver)

We travelled back to Baku and had a late lunch at Iskender Restaurant at the Metropark Shopping Mall.

(Metropark Shopping Mall)

(Beef kebabs and rice for lunch)

Tonight we were invited for dinner at the house of the Second Secretary of the Malaysian Embassy and had the opportunity to meet the Ambassador’s wife.